New Jersey poet laureate Amiri Baraka says he will fight legislation aimed at removing him from the state-appointed position, telling The Jewish Week Tuesday he was prepared to take legal action if a bill being drafted this week in the state Senate passes. “I certainly will sue,” he said Tuesday by phone from his home in Newark.

Legal experts say the controversial poet could have a good case on free-speech grounds.

New Jersey lawmakers were set this week to review bipartisan bills aimed at ousting the state's poet laureate, Amiri Baraka, who has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in his poem "Somebody Blew Up America." One bill, from Democratic state Senate President Richard Codey, would authorize the state Council for the Humanities to remove a sitting poet laureate. The other bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Peter Inverso, would allow the governor to fire a poet laureate.

New Jersey poet laureate Amiri Baraka says he will fight legislation aimed at removing him from the state-appointed position, telling The Jewish Week Tuesday he was prepared to take legal action if a bill being drafted this week in the state Senate passes. “I certainly will sue,” he said Tuesday by phone from his home in Newark.
Legal experts say the controversial poet could have a good case on free-speech grounds.